EVENTS

Sodomy – the ULTIMATE sin

For anyone who’s ever complained about the government needing to “get off our backs”, or complaints about legislation being “shoved down our throat”, you can stop whining. It could be way worse:

The trial of the Malaysian opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, on charges of sodomy, has resumed after a long delay.

Unsurprisingly, sodomy is a crime in Malaysia. I say unsurprisingly because Malaysia, like Lebanon, has articles in its constitution that make it a requirement for holders of certain levels of political office to be of a certain religion, and can declare portions of its population Muslim by legislative fiat. Any place where there is a constitutional requirement to profess religion to hold high office is likely a place where bizarre Biblical (or, as the case may be, Qu’ranic) statutes are enforced by the power of the state. As CLS has noted before: “The church is pretty much a toothless dog when it doesn’t have access to state power.”

Luckily for the church in Malaysia, it’s a crime to have sex with another man, and they can drag the leader of the opposition through the mud whenever they see fit. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time these charges have been laid against him (pun fully intended).

What strikes me about this story isn’t that Malaysia is backwards because it’s a crime to be gay. Don’t get me wrong – trying to legislate sexuality is about as productive as passing a law requiring you to be at least 6′ tall, and all countries with ridiculous and untenable “morality” laws should be ashamed of themselves. What’s fascinating about these charges is that the people of Malaysia and the government seem to have no problem with Ibrahim having been convicted on corruption charges; they’re just interested in where his penis has been.